Following is a “grassroots letter from Westport Women to Westport Women,” contributed to the opinion columns of the Westport Journal.

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We believe this moment in time is not “politics as usual.”

We are inspired by Westport women who came before us — Republicans and Democrats alike — who rallied and door-knocked and wrote letters and took personal risks for over seven decades in pursuit of the right to vote. 

Today, more than 100 years after the 19th Amendment was added to our Constitution, women are still not equal under the law. This is both unethical and unAmerican. Overturning Roe v. Wade was, quite simply, a violation of our dignity and human rights. 

Join us in mobilizing the power of the collective to promote women’s issues in 2022. Issues that are personal, familial and community focused. Issues that include privacy and individual freedoms and the education, safety and well-being of our children. Issues that impact the identity and vitality of our town. 

When we cast our ballots in November, we must vote for policies, candidates and parties that validate our equal status, shared values and the survival of our democracy. Throughout history and in societies across the globe, women have united against marginalization. Demanding that our elected officials stand up for the rights of more than half the population is fundamental to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. 

Committed to moving forward in our homes, our schools and workplaces, our village, our state and our country, we respectfully ask you, friends and neighbors from diverse political ideologies, to:

• Recognize your power.

• Accept your responsibility.

• Vote in the best interests of yourself and your sisters, daughters, mothers, girlfriends and granddaughters. 

As Westport suffragists Lillian Wald, Amelia Shaw MacDonald Cutler, Sara Buek Crawford, Anna Holden Mazzanovich, Laura Gardin Fraser, Rose O’Neill and others bravely did over 100 years ago, stand up for the women and girls you know and don’t yet know, in Westport and in destinations far from here. Our causes are also theirs. 

Women of Westport unite. And VOTE.

We invite Westport women and high school girls (able / soon able to vote) to add their names. Thank you to Pamela Hovland who started this initiative in neighboring Wilton and who created the 2020 series of  “I voted” 19th Amendment centennial stickers for the state of Connecticut.

To add your name to this letter, email Jessica Hill at jmbhill24@gmail.com.

Following are signatories of the letter: